Accused killer pleads insanity

A man accused of breaking into a 73-year-old widow’s house in Cut Off, stabbing her and slitting her throat 17 years ago has entered a pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

A man accused of breaking into a 73-year-old widow’s house in Cut Off, stabbing her and slitting her throat 17 years ago has entered a pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity.This development will delay the second-degree murder trial of Sonny Guidry, 34, who investigators said confessed in August to the June 1995 murder of Enola Boudreaux. His mother, Diane Billiot, is also charged with the murder.State District Judge F. Hugh Larose of Thibodaux will commission two doctors to interview Guidry to determine if he is competent to stand trial, District Attorney Cam Morvant II said. “Everything is stayed or stopped,” Morvant said. “We cannot go forward once this sanity commission is appointed. There’s nothing we can do at this point.”After the court-appointed doctors come to a conclusion and issue reports, Larose will determine Guidry’s competency during a court hearing, Morvant said. Expert witnesses may be called to testify during the hearings.If he is found to be fit to stand trial, legal proceedings can continue. If he is found unfit, he must be treated at a hospital until he is deemed fit to stand trial. If doctors cannot bring him to be fit for trial, he will never stand trial.Morvant declined to respond to the allegations of insanity. Boudreaux’s granddaughter, Jocelyn Terrebonne, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. Guidry’s court-appointed attorney cannot make statements to the media, officials with the Lafourche Indigent Defenders Board said. A grand jury indicted Billiot on second-degree murder charges in January after a previous grand jury had only indicted her on obstruction of justice charges last September, court records show. Her trial is scheduled later this year.Guidry’s plea, entered Friday, will not affect Billiot’s trial, Morvant said. She has entered a plea of not guilty.Morvant declined to say what new evidence was discovered in order to present Billiot’s case to a second grand jury.Competency hearings have also delayed the murder trial of Jeremiah Wright, who is accused of decapitating his disabled 7-year-old son. Larose granted Wright’s lawyers’ request for a psychiatric evaluation in August 2011, the same month Wright’s son Jori Lirette was killed. After that evaluation, doctors concluded Wright was not fit to stand trial, and Larose concurred. Efforts to treat Wright until he is competent continue to delay the trial.Wright’s lawyers have not entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. So far, they have only questioned his competency to stand trial.Doctors that judges have commissioned can sometimes offer their opinions about the defendant’s mental state when the crime was committed, but only a jury can decide if a person is guilty ­— and should be sent to jail — or not guilty by reason of insanity — and should be sent to a hospital until he or she is determined not to be a threat, Morvant said.Guidry and Billiot, former Cut Off residents, were both living in different areas of Oklahoma when they were arrested last year, Lafourche deputies said. After refusing to talk to detectives, they left Louisiana six months after Boudreaux’s death. Guidry was 17 at the time.At the time of the arrests, Sheriff Craig Webre said he had gotten an email alleging Billiot destroyed evidence related to Boudreaux’s murder. After that, investigators questioned Guidry, who confessed, and Billiot, who wouldn’t answer questions.Guidry told Lafourche cold case investigator John Dillman that Boudreaux walked in on him as he searched her home on East Main Street for money, Webre said. Guidry told detectives he doesn’t remember killing Boudreaux, but he does remember his clothes were bloody and he had two purses with him when he left.Guidry took money from the purses, which he gave to Billiot to buy drugs, Webre said. The bloody clothes were burned, he told investigators.If convicted, they face mandatory life prison sentences. Guidry is in the Lafourche Parish jail on $1.5 million bond. Billiot is also in the jail on a $1.7 million bond.

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